Lidocaine IV anyone?

I've had new daily persistent headache for about fives years now--tried a lot of options: nerve blocks, botox, all kinds of migraine drugs and painkillers and other hospitalization. Newest thing my neurologist is having me try is having inpatient IV lidocaine infusion for about a week. Does anyone have any experience with this? I've tried lidocaine nasal spray and oral lidocaine (Mexiletine) to no avail and I'm frankly not very optimistic about this....Any experiences or information would be appreciated.
DX: NDPH, Bipolar 2, Recovered CRPS

korbnep: I will be very interested to hear how the IV lidocaine works for you. My neurologist has given my Lidocaine Nasal Spray but I found that it didn't do much at all. I think if my headache was in the front of my head, it might have helped. My headaches are usually in the center of my head, right behind one of my eyes so it didn't do anything.

Well, I had my prehospitalization visit today with my neurologist and learned a little more. As you may know, lidocaine is primarily a cardiac drug, used to combat arrythimias. So this means that I'll have a detailed heart monitor set up to me throughout my visit. I was told that the general side effects tend to be sedation and, in some cases, visual hallucinations (but oh well, even though I haven't had a conversation with a chair since I stopped taking Ambien, I feel I can handle this ).

I go in to the hospital on Monday and I'm told that the typical period of treatment is 5-7 days, with the discharge goal being to have 24 straight headache-free hours (unheard of!). As I think I mentioned before, I don't feel all that optimistic going in, as I was told before my last inpatient hospital stay that most cases crack during hospitalization and, of course, mine didn't, even as the stay approached two weeks. But apparently the lidocaine really does work for a lot of people who haven't responded to other therapy in the past. If I don't respond within two weeks, then I'll receive my "dishonorable discharge" (as it were...sorry, I feel oddly inclined toward bad jokes today) and we'll consider other options.

Before I mention those other options, I want to let you guys know a little about what happened in my last hospitalization. I was admitted and treated with the same 24 hour goal in mind, but administered a general cocktail of DHE, Toradol, Benedryl, and various anti-emetics. Soon after their ideal 4-5 day window passed, they realized that I wasn't responding to these drugs and threw in a bunch of neuroleptics: thorazine, haldol, etc. Again, no response. After 11 days it was time for university classes to begin and I was discharged. The reason I mention all of this, other than for its own sake, is that I will be treated with these drugs in addition to the lidocaine I receive in the hospital starting next week. So a lot is going to be going on; I think they're trying to blitzkrieg my head and hope it folds.

One final thing: about a year ago I tried receiving nerve blocks in various areas of my head, face and neck, as many of you may have tried as well. Unfortunately, I did not receive any lasting relief from this treatment. However, I was wonderously headache-free for about an hour and a half. This wasn't considered a success, since they look for days, weeks or months of relief, but it's something that gives me some hope in remembering it. As I'm sure is the case with many of us, I can barely remember what it feels like to not have a headache, so I told my neurologist that there must be some significance in the (temporary) relief I found. So we're trying to do a series of nerve blocks as well, hoping for longer results, maybe from repetition. This also brings up the next treatment we may consider if the lidocaine fails, which is an implanted nerve stimulator in my head (most likely on the occipital). Anyone have any experience or stories about this treatment that they can share? Although I'm not there yet, I feel that it may be my best hope.

Hope your hospitalization was successful. I too suffer from chronic daily headaches. I have tried every drug there is. I am a nurse, so when I heard you were going to try lidocaine IV I had some concerns, so I hope it worked out for you. My father also suffer from migraines and clusters. he went through a foramenotomy, then went to the University of Michigan headache Center (we live in Massachusetts) and he had the nerve stimulator implanted about 2-3 years ago now. He stayed out there for 3 weeks. He has had it repaired, fortunatley they do it in Boston now so he didn't have to go back to Michigan. On top of it he still takes all his migraine meds, verapamil, maxalt, trileptal, neurontin, etc, and still averages about 2-3 bad ones a week. I supposed that is better then daily. I use Lidocaine nasal spray because I have easy access to it, it lasts for about an hour, which sometimes is all I need to get me over a hump. I discovered back in the early '90's going through the med trials with the neuro, that he decided to try me on Soma to see if any of it was tension related, and the soma did help. So between soma, lido spray, excedrin, white willow bark and a few other things I can sometimes tame the beast. Needless to say I have nasty peptic ulcer disease and have been in the hospital for that!! The occasional sudafed too, because I always feel sinus with my migraines, and clusters. I should own stock in excedrin though I tell ya. I just ended a 6month trial of topamax. I felt that did nothing. My brother gets them too (keepin it all in the family, my sister too) and he tried topamax and didn't like it either.

Old, Old stand by's for headache's are bella donna, if you can get it, percogesic, and taking a "drug holiday" We forget that many drugs can cause rebound headches including my favorite...excedrin. If you are bipolar, lithium has good pain relief side effects. I would steer clear of droperidol. If you have a scrip for zofran you shouldn't need dropidol too. Dropidol is not perscribed somuch any more it has cardiac side effects. good luck to you.